Abstract:Situation of trawl gears and fishing methods in 32 major fishing ports and villages, and 5 fishing gear plants, distributed along the coast of Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea area,have been investigated or visited in the terms of working principle of fishing equipment, fishing season, fishing grounds, fishing equipment allocated proportion, fishing vessels power etc.during June~July, 2010.Also, the situations of circumference of net mouth, net total length, net mouth mesh size, and the smallest mesh size of cod-end were surveyed. All types 25000 trawlers were found in surroundings of the Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea area, and the proportion of small trawlers reached as high as 80%, mainly distributed in the Bohai Sea area and some inshore waters of the Yellow Sea. Totally 34 kinds of trawl nets were found: 7 kinds of the small single-vessel ground-trawl with double-wings and single-cod-end, 1 kind of the small single-vessel floating-trawl with double-wings and single-cod-end and,1 kind of the small double-vessels ground-trawl with double-wings and single-cod-end, 2 kinds of the small double-vessels floating-trawl with double-wings and single-cod-end, 1 kind of the single-vessel beam trawl with double-cod-ends, 5 kinds of the single-vessel beam framework trawl with single-cod-end, 5 kinds of the medium single-vessel ground-trawl with double-wings and single-cod-end, 2 kinds of the large-scale single-vessel ground-trawl with double-wings and single-cod-end, 2 kinds of the large and medium-scale single-vessel floating-trawl with double-wings and single-cod-end, 3 kinds of the medium double-vessels ground-trawl with double-wings and single-cod-endand 5 kinds of the large and medium scale single-vessel floating-trawl with double-wings and single-cod-end.The trawling intensity greatly exceeds the reproduction capacity of fishery resources, and the fishing yields are of low-value and immaturity.Subsistence fishing and commercial fishing at the same time also showed the prominent contradictions. The mesh size of wing and net mouth is getting bigger, the mesh size of cod-end is getting smaller, and the entire trawl gear shows a tendency of size increase. The largest mesh size of wing is 16 000mm, the largest mesh size of net mouth is 15 000mm, the circumference of net mouth is 840m, the net total length is 170m, the smallest mesh size of cod-end is 40~45mm or 18~20mm, and the individual minimum mesh size of cod-end is only 6~8mm. The seabed and benthic organisms were seriously damaged by ground wire of the beam framework trawl and the bow-frame trawl. The fishing equipment needs standardization and calls for scientific research.
